LD 






THE DEATH OF THE BELIEVER. 



A SERMON, 



PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL OF BROWN UNIVERSITY, 



JUNE 30th, 1850, 



THE SABBATH AFTER THE DECEASE OF 



MRS. ESTHER LOIS CASWELL, 



WIFE OF 



PROFESSOR ALEXIS CASWELL. 



BY ERANCIS WAYLAND, 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY. 



NOT PUBLISHED 




Qass_ 

Book .C^aV/w- 



THE DEATH OF THE BELIEVER. 



A SERMON, 



PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL OF BROWN UNIVERSITY, 



JUNE 30th, 1850, 

// 7 



THE SABBATH AFTER THE DECEASE OF 

MRS. ESTHER LOIS CASWELL, 



WIFE OF 



PROFESSOR ALEXIS CASWELL. 



BY FRANCIS WAYLAND, 

PRESIDENT OP THE UNIVERSITY. 



NOT PUBLISHED. 



PKOVIDENCE: 
PRINTED BY JOSEPH KNOWLES, 

185 0. 



0& 



/ 3 3 T 5 S' 



i 



SERMON 



II. TIMOTHY, 1: 10. 



OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, WHO HATH ABOLISHED DEATH AND HATH BROUGHT 
LIFE AND IMMORTALITY. TO LIGHT THROUGH THE GOSPEL. 



It is utterly impossible, my brethren, for us to form 
any conception of the intensity of meaning which these 
words conveyed, at the time when they were first uttered. 
We are so familiar with the stupendous truth which they 
reveal that it has, in a great measure, lost its signifi- 
cancy. A disbeliever in a future state is now so rare 
that he is looked upon as a phenomenon difficult of 
explanation. His views are at variance with the almost 
universal belief of mankind, and we are forced to sup- 
pose either, that a life of sin has indisposed him thought- 
fully to meditate on the idea of immortality, or, that the 
structure of his intellect, having been somehow subvert- 
ed, he refuses to believe what to others seems so obvious 
as scarcely to be any longer a proper subject for argu- 
ment. 

Very different however was the condition of mankind 
when our Lord declared "Those that are in their graves 
shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come 
forth ; those that have done good to the resurrection of 
life, and those that have done evil to the resurrection of 
condemnation." At that time the idea of a future life 
had taken firm hold of but here and there an individual 
among the Jews. A large number of the chosen people 
of God, were Sadducees, " denying that there is any res- 
urrection either angel or spirit." Of those who admit- 
ted these truths, the greater part held them almost as 
matters of mere speculation. If it were granted that man 



(4 ) 

would exist after death, and they were asked what is the 
nature of that existence and how shall we best prepare for 
it, they could furnish to such questions only a vague 
and unsatisfactory answer. A few holy men, from the 
workings of their own consciousness, aided by the divine 
light of the Old Testament, were convinced that their love 
of God and of all goodness must yet be satisfied by 
awakening sometime or somewhere in his likeness ; but 
they rather looked into their own hearts for confirmation 
of their belief than to any acknowledged fact or any posi- 
tive declaration on which they could rely with certainty. 
If this was the condition of the Jewish, what must 
have been the condition of the Gentile world 1 On the 
heathen no light whatever had yet dawned. Their unseen 
world had been peopled by the poets with deities whom 
all thinking men acknowledged to be fabulous. Virgil 
had told them of a region of ghosts, where, for a while, 
all men dwelt amid unsubstantial shadows, again in 
other forms to revisit the earth, and pursue over again 
the phantoms of a sublunary existence. But all men 
knew that these were the creations of fancy, resting on 
no basis of evidence. Yet abolish these poetical dreams, 
and what was there left 1 Nothing, absolutely nothing. 
It was admitted that the vague idea of a futurity of 
some kind had floated for ages through the imaginations 
of men, but whence did it originate, and who was re- 
sponsible for its truth I Who had ever returned from the 
other world to tell us of what was there transpiring 1 
Where was the annointed messenger of the Most High, 
who had been commissioned to unfold to us the facts 
concerning the invisible state \ The senses could not 
penetrate so far. The facts, if known at all, must be 
known by direct revelation ; but during the long ages 
of heathenism who had been the revealer ? All was in- 
volved in misty obscurity ; and shadows, clouds and dark- 
ness rested upon it, 



( 5 ) 

All the writings of classical antiquity with which I 
am acquainted are overspread with this darkness. Cice- 
ro indulged the hope that he should after death renew 
his acquaintance with the illustrious men whom he had 
known in his youth, because he supposed that such gift- 
ed men could not wholly have perished. But if this 
were the only reason, what hope did it offer for those 
who were not thus gifted, for the trodden down 
slave, or the despised barbarian. Plato has endeavored 
to demonstrate the truth of the immortality of the soul ; 
but it seems to me that no man who has ever doubted 
could be convinced by his argument. And hence the 
most thoughtful of the classical writers, rarely if ever, 
use the future world as a motive to present action. 
They spoke of immortality, it is true, and declared that 
they should not wholly die: but the immortality to 
which they referred was not the immortality of the soul 
but only of their works and actions. They wrote that 
the productions of their genius might be read by after 
ages. They conquered that their names might be in- 
scribed on the pages of history. Their natural love of 
existence was turned into this channel, while of what 
became of the soul, if indeed any thing became of it, 
they seem to have been profoundly unmindful. Such 
was the case with the most eminent men, those whose 
writings have come down to us. But, if such were their 
ideas, what must have been those of the common people 1 
At the present day, in the full light of the gospel, we 
find that men exist deplorably ignorant both of God and 
eternity. What must then have been the condition of 
the ignorant when the minds of the most enlightened 
were groping in thick darkness 1 It was all one solid 
mass of unmixed earthliness and sensuality : men were 
destitute of any thought of futurity, intent on pleasure 
like the brutes that perish, having no hope, living with- 
out God in the world. 



( « ) 

It was to a world thus brutalized and lying in wicked- 
ness that Jesus Christ announced the stupendous truth, 
" I am the Resurrection and the Life." He first declared 
from the presence of the living God, that man would 
live after death, that he must live forever, that he must 
live in infinite happiness or infinite woe, and more than 
all, that it depends upon our moral character here, 
whether the immortality of every soul be a blessing or 
a curse. It is this truth that penetrated the ear of stu- 
. pid, sensual and sinful humanity. It is this that aroused 
our race from the slumber of ages. It was a new truth 
and it was filled with wonder. It added infinite dura- 
tion at once to the brief span of man's sublunary exist- 
ence. It rendered every human being an object of ines- 
timable importance. It teaches us that a single hu- 
man soul is of more value than the material universe. 
It is of itself motive sufficient to change the whole 
course of human thought ; to instil into the bosom of 
sensual man aspirations after infinite holiness ; to give 
us victory over the world, and animate us to strive with 
breathless earnestness after that glory to which Ave are 
so strangely destined. It is no wonder that with the 
announcement of this truth, a new era dawned upon 
mankind. It is not strange that from this moment a 
new form of character was originated among men. Jesus 
Christ has taught us our destiny. He has offered to us 
a way of escape from the doom that we merited ; he 
has himself, both by precept and example, taught us the 
manner of life by which we can alone be prepared for 
eternity ; and he has gone to prepare for us mansions in 
his Father's house, where' he ever lives to intercede for 
us. Therefore is it, that all our salvation is attributed 
to Christ ; therefore is it, that the song of the redeemed 
will ever be " Unto Him that hath saved us, and washed 
us in his own blood and made us kings and priests unto 
God." But what is the truth that Christ so emphatically 



'( 7 ) 

revealed to the world thus lost in sensual enjoyment, 
hastening to the grave, the apparently eternal sleep 
of the whole race of man'? He has abolished death, — 
and brought life and immortality to light through the 
gospel. 

1st. He has abolished death. He has banished for- 
ever from the minds of men the ideas which they for- 
merly entertained on this momentous subject. Their 
language was, let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die. 
He has taught us that death, that is the destruction of 
the soul, is forever impossible. Their question was 
what will be the difference hereafter between the brute and 
the man, since death lays his hand equally upon both. 
The Redeemer has taught us that there is a spirit in man 
which no change in his material frame can possibly af- 
fect. The duration of the spirit can be arrested by no 
power of our own or of all things created. All live unto 
God ; and until he reverse his decree, no one of us can 
cease to live. 

2d. He has brought life to light, that is, he has shed 
upon our future life a flood of light ; He has given us all 
the information concerning it necessary to our prepara- 
tion for its solemn realities. He has taught us the na- 
ture of that existence, the character of its enjoyments, 
the events which are to transpire after death, and the 
infinitely glorious realities of which we are then to come 
into possession. 

3d. He has brought not only life but immortality to 
light. He has taught us that We shall live after death, 
but more than this, that we shall live with powers of 
happiness immeasurably increased. Death opens to us 
no longer the door of annihilation, but the portals of a 
glorious immortality. Such is the teaching which Christ 
has revealed to a world lying in the darkness and 
the shadow of death. 



( 8) 

But let us now inquire a little more particularly what 
are some of the most important facts which the gospel 
reveals to us concerning the future state of the believer. 

The scriptures teach us that at death the soul, 
the immortal part of man, leaves the body and enters at 
once upon a state of inconceivable blessedness. " This 
day" said the Saviour, " shalt thou be with me in Para- 
dise." " Absent from the body, present with the Lord," 
said the Apostle Paul. The soul, as it enters upon this 
state, leaves behind it all the infirmities and imperfections 
which cleave to its present state. Its probation is 
closed. Its trials are ended. Its battle is fought. The 
victory is won. It can sin no more. It can no longer 
be in danger of perdition. It is made, through Him that 
has loved it, perfect in holiness. It enjoys in a manner 
and in a degree of which we can form no conception, the 
immediate presence of Christ, being confirmed forever 
in his love, and made meet to be an inheritor with the 
saints in light. 

There is reason to believe moreover that the souls of 
the saints cherish a deep interest in the moral events 
which transpire on earth. It is said that the angels are 
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who 
shall be heirs of salvation. We are repeatedly assured 
that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God 
over one sinner that repenteth. If these beings of 
another rank watch over us with such earnestness, it is 
reasonable, at least, to suppose that their interest in us 
is shared by those who are heirs of the same salvation, 
who have passed through the same trials, and who are 
with us waiting for the same consummation of Glory. 

Besides, whenever we hear the blessed dead spoken of in 
the New Testament, we find that it is in connexion with 
something done on earth. Moses and Elias appeared on 
the mount, and conversed with the Saviour concerning 
his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. 



( 9 ) 

So, when the apostle John in the Isle of Patmos was 
permitted to witness the mystery of the revealing, he be- 
held the saints praising God for his judgments on earth. 
And when he fell at the feet of him that shewed him these 
these things, he was told, " See thou do it not, for I am 
thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, 
and of them which keep the sayings of this book." It 
was a glorified spirit of our own race that had been com- 
missioned to unveil to him the wonder-working provi- 
dence of God, preparing the way for the ultimate 
triumph of the church of Christ. 

From these scattered hints we are, I think, justified in 
the belief that the soul made perfect in holiness will 
exist in the full consciousness of the love of God ; that 
there will be about it nothing on which the eye of God 
does not look with approbation ; that it will enjoy in full 
measure its likeness to the blessed Saviour ; that it will 
observe the present condition of the work of redemption 
on earth, will hail with rapture every indication of its 
success, and at every step of its progress, see new and 
overwhelming reasons for adoring the wisdom of Him. 
whose way is in the sea, and whose path is in the great 
waters, and whose footsteps are unknown. 

In this manner will all the powers of the soul be pu- 
rified, exalted, ennobled and enlarged. Some of the 
forms of holiness which it cultivated here, will there be 
carried to their highest perfection. Those which were 
peculiar to the present state, such as patience, resignation, 
forgiveness and faith will be transformed into spiritual 
graces for which the language of earth has as yet no 
names. Our conceptions, our desires, our moral im- 
provement here, are all conditioned by the body which 
we inhabit. Then all such hindrances will be laid aside 
for ever, and who can tell how rapid will be the unfold- 
ing of every spiritual excellence, and how vast will be 
the progress of the soul as it is changed from glory to 



( IQ J 

glory by the unmeasured bestowment of the Spirit of the 
living God. 

But at last, the time will come when the mystery of 
redemption will have been completed. The probation 
of earth will have been closed. At the last trump, for 
the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised incor- 
ruptible. At that solemn moment, all the souls of the 
children of men will be re-united to the bodies which 
they formerly inhabited. This corruptible shall put on 
incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. 
Then will the race of Adam be called to judgment, those 
that have done good to the resurrection of life, and those 
that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. 
As they come forth from their graves they will be found, 
some on the right hand, and some on the left hand of the 
Son of Man. Every one will there be judged according 
to his works. Then shall the Judge say to those on the 
right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world ; and then shall he say to them on the left hand, 
Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the 
devil and his angels. And these shall go into everlast- 
ing punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. 

Then will the soul, purified and exalted to the perfec- 
tion of holiness, united to a body made like unto the 
glorious body of Christ, enter in full into that state of 
supreme felicity prepared for it by God. I think that 
the scriptures distinctly teach us, that the race of man 
for which Christ interposed, and whose nature he as- 
sumed, will be raised in rank above its natural condition, 
that is, the rank which Ave inherited as the children of 
Adam. A special and wonderful glory was bestowed on 
Christ as the reward of his deep humiliation, his perfect 
obedience, and his bitter and ignominious death. This 
special glory, will be shared by all those who are one 
with him. Where the Forerunner entered there shall 



( 11 ) 

Ills followers enter. We shall sit down with him on his 
throne, as he has overcome and sat down with his Fa- 
ther on his throne. So shall we be ever with the Lord. 
Here we are left by the scriptures. It doth not yet 
appear what we shall be, but when he shall appear we 
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The 
conceptions of men could not comprehend the ultimate 
glory of the blessed in Christ. We have however the 
means for forming some estimate of their blessedness. 
Think, in the first place how God has loved us. Ob- 
serve at what expense he has removed every obstacle to 
our most perfect happiness. There were moral obsta- 
cles in the way of the bestowment of his favor. He 
gave his only begotten Son for our redemption, and 
these were removed by the work of Christ. There were 
physical obstacles. Our souls, united with these bodies, 
could not rise to the perfection of which they are capa- 
ble. They are advanced in glory during the period be- 
tween death and the resurrection. Again, mortal bodies 
could not be the tabernacle for a spirit raised to such 
perfection. This corruptible is therefore made incor- 
ruptible. Each adapted to the other, they are re-united 
to enter together the kingdom prepared for them from 
the foundation of the world. Now if the love of God 
made all this preparation for our ultimate state, is it pos- 
sible for finite mind to conceive of the glory to 
Avhich we are then to be exalted \ Love infinite as his 
wisdom and power and holiness will then expend upon 
us its inexhaustible munificence. Eye hath not seen, nor 
ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 
" And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying unto 
me the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell 
with them ; and God himself shall be with them and be 
their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sor- 



( 12} 

row, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, 
for the former things are passed away." 

Now compare for a moment the knowledge of man- 
kind before the advent of the Messiah, with the revela- 
tion which he made of the invisible world, if yon would 
comprehend the fullness of meaning contained in the 
words, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath 
abolished death and brought life and immortality to light 
through the gospel. He has created for us a new and 
inconceivably glorious destiny. He has taught us how 
we may attain to the possession of that immortality 
which he has purchased for us. He bestows that Holy 
Spirit by which we are made meet to be partakers with 
the saints in light. He is the way and the truth and 
the life. No man can come unto the Father but through 
him. He that believeth on him shall never come into 
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. 

1st. If all this be true we see at once that the great 
business of this mortal life is to prepare for the immor- 
tality revealed to us by Christ. That we are unprepared 
for it, without renewing and sanctifying grace, is evident. 
Our most important concern on earth, then, is to make 
our calling and election sure. Compared with this how 
useless is the labor for wealth, the struggle for power, 
the thirst for reputation or the pursuit after knowledge. 
These all terminate here, they have no bearing upon 
those approaching stages of existence at which we may 
arrive by faith in Christ. And. if these comparatively 
serious pursuits become, in view of eternity, so vain and 
contemptible, what language can describe the indecency 
of a life of sensual pleasure and conventional trifling, 
which even an earnest man of the world despises as too 
frivolous to be endured. What a shame is it for those 
to whom such a destiny has been revealed, to live like 
the heathen who know of nothing beyond the grave ; 
nay, so to live that even the most thoughtful of the 



( 13 ) 

heathen would have looked upon them with contempt. 
This appears shameful enough now, but how will it ap- 
pear at the hour of death, at the day of judgment, nay, 
through a long, long eternity % 

Say, sages, say, 
Wits, oracles, say, dreamers of gay dreams, 
How will ye weather an eternal night 
When such expedients fail ? 

2d. This subject illustrates to us the nature of that 
preparation which our condition demands. If such 
stages of existence are before us, if every thing earthly 
is to be laid aside at the grave, then the preparation 
that we need is the cultivation of our spiritual nature. 
If moreover, our happiness in the other state, depends 
upon our moral likeness to God, then it is to the culti- 
vation of our religious nature that all our care should 
be directed. The reading of the scriptures, communion 
with God in prayer, and the improvement of our souls 
by the practice of charity are the means which he has 
prescribed for our preparation for heaven. With this is 
always to be combined the forsaking of the world with 
its affections and lusts. It is certainly strange to behold 
a soul aspiring after communion with Christ, yet eager in 
the pursuit of worldly amusement, and, in everything 
but the mere name, conformed to the world, and, yield- 
ing itself up blindly to its sensual and alluring vanities. 
It is only by coming out from the world, and bearing 
the cross of Christ and really living a holy and devout 
life, that we can become jDrepared for the blessedness of 
the righteous. 

3d. How full is the consolation which this subject 
offers to those who mourn the loss of Christian friends. 
It is the will of God that we and all that we love shall 
return to dust. But how blessed beyond concep- 
tion is the grave of the believer 1 We bid an adieu to 
the saint at death, but we sorrow not as those that have 
no hope. While we bury all that is mortal in the grave, 



( 11 ) 

we know that the spirit has gained the victory for eter- 
nity. It shall sin no more, it shall stumble no more 
from human infirmity. Strong in immortal youth it has 
entered already upon that upward path which conducts 
it directly to the right hand of God. We deposit the 
precious dust in the earth, in full confidence that those 
who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. That cor- 
ruptible flesh was redeemed by Christ, and he will raise it 
incorruptible. It shall ere long be re-united with the 
spirit that has just left it, both having become incon- 
ceivably glorious, and thus it shall be forever with the 
Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 
4th. These same truths should fill our own souls 
with joyful confidence while we look forward to our own 
decease. The last sickness, the agonies of death, the 
final adieu to every thing on earth, await each one of us. 
But if we be the faithful and simple hearted followers of 
Christ, how glorious a privilege it is to die. It is to 
cease from sin, and to be perfectly holy henceforward 
forever ; to escape the last, the very last danger ; to 
bid adieu forever to infirmity, to sorrow, and the very 
liability of being lost ; it is to enter at once upon that 
state in which, without hindrance or weakness, all our 
powers will be fully developed, and we shall be growing 
forever in likeness to Christ. It involves, it is true, the 
parting for a short season from all that we love on earth ; 
but it gives us in exchange the company of those whom 
we have loved before, who have washed their robes and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Nor shall 
these alone be our associates. There are the martyrs, 
confessors and holy men whose works we have read, and 
whose example we have labored to imitate. There are 
the Apostles and Prophets whose words have so often 
filled us with humble penitence and spiritual joy. 
There is Christ himself who has loved us, and given him- 
self for us, manifesting to the redeemed the fullness of 



( 15 ) 

his love. And this shall go on increasing and becoming 
more and more joyful forever. Let us strive to bear 
these truths habitually in mind. It is not enough that 
we yield them a cold and speculative belief. We must 
have our hearts penetrated and imbued with such con- 
ceptions, if we would enjoy the full benefit of them at 
the hour of death. Nor this alone. Such thoughts as 
these will moderate our love of the world, place 
every thing in its true position, and give it its just pro- 
portion ; and thus we shall become daily more and more 
meet for the rest that remaineth for the people of God. 

You are all too deeply aware of the significancy that 
has been given to these remarks by the events of the 
past week. A member of our little congregation, who 
has for many years united with us in the service of God 
on earth, has, since our last meeting here, been called to 
serve him in the temple not made with hands. It is 
seemly that I refer to this event, for the purpose 
of strengthening the faith and animating the hopes of 
those who are left behind. This is not the presence, nor 
this the occasion on which to speak of those personal 
graces with which she was embellished, or those social 
endowments with which she was enriched. I speak of 
her simply as a follower of Christ, for it is as such alone 
that she is esteemed in the society which she has now 
entered. 

Mrs. Caswell was blessed with a disposition peculiar- 
ly amiable, and with affections uncommonly genial and 
benignant. These sanctified by divine grace rendered 
her the ornament of the circle in which she moved, and 
almost the idol of those who were so fortunate as to 
be numbered among her intimate friends. She was an 
exemplary disciple of Christ, from the day on which she 
first relied on him for salvation. Constitutionally hap- 
py herself, her presence was the unfailing source of hap- 
piness to others. Fulfilling with admirable propriety 



( 16 ) 

every duty to which in the providence of God she was 
called ; shedding around her the hallowed influences of 
consistent piety and universal charity, in the midst of 
her usefulness, after a brief illness, on the morning of Tues- 
day last, she was summoned to enter upon the rest that 
remaineth for the people of God. In some respects her 
Christian example was peculiar. A diligent student of 
the scriptures, she received their instructions with that 
childlike simplicity, which is one of the rarest and rich- 
est of Christian attainments. Encumbering herself with 
neither inferential doctrines, nor speculative generaliza- 
tions, she meekly received the word of God as a message 
from her Father in Heaven to his child on earth, and 
she labored habitually to conform her life to the plain 
announcement of his will. She did not so frequently as 
many others unite in meetings for associated devotion ; 
but she was specially devout in private and at home. 
It was her habit with childlike confidence, to present 
before the throne of heavenly grace her joys and her 
sorrows, her wants and her fears ; and she did it in the 
full assurance that her prayers would be answered. She 
received the promises of the Gospel as the words of her 
dearest friend, in the sure belief that it was pleasing to 
God to bestow on her every thing that she needed both for 
time and eternity. Enjoying this confidence, she was care- 
ful to keep herself unspotted from the world. One of 
her latest conversations was directed to this subject, and 
she then expressed her alarm at the spirit of worldliness 
which is so rapidly overspreading the professed church 
of Christ. I pray God that her warning may be heeded 
by us all, and may teach us that the thoughtless pleasures 
of those who know not God are unseemly for those who 
are preparing to dwell forever with a crucified and risen 
Redeemer. It is also proper to remark that her chari- 
ty was exemplary and in some respects unusual. In 
many associations of benevolence and in objects of 



( H) 

charity not specified in the gospel she had, perhaps, less 
interest than many other christians. Her heart how* 
ever turned instinctively towards every form of misery in 
her own immediate vicinity. To visit the sick, to relieve 
the widow and orphan, to carry the message of salvation 
to those that are perishing around us, these were the 
objects that particularly interested her. To them she 
was ever ready to contribute not only her pecuniary 
means but her personal effort. Her last Visit was a visit 
of Christian consolation to a friend in apparently her 
last illness. Her deeds of mercy may be easily known to 
any one who will follow her example and comfort the 
afflicted whom her death has deprived of one of their 
most sympathizing and liberal benefactors. In choos- 
ing this course, she however, in no manner, wished to 
undervalue the modes of benevolence which others might 
choose to adopt. She thought that this was the path of 
duty which Christ had pointed out for her, and she 
chose it because he had first chosen it for her. Thus 
nourishing her soul by communion with God, and puri- 
fying her affections by deeds of charity to man, she was 
daily preparing for Heaven, when unexpectedly to her 
friends, though probably not so to herself, her proba- 
tion was ended, and she fell asleep in Jesus. Blessed 
are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, 
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and 
their works do follow them. 

My brethren, what is the lesson which we are to learn 
from this bereavement 1 Plainly this, that we must all, 
each one for himself, pass through this great change. 
Soon the seat of one and another of us will be vacated 
in the house of prayer. The sickness unto death will 
fasten itself upon each one of us. The last agony must 
be borne, and the last farewell to earth must be uttered. 
The mourners will bear us to the home appointed for 
all the living, and our home, henceforth, will be in Eter- 



( 18 ) 

nity. Are we living in preparation for this our great 
change % O let us give all diligence to make our call- 
ing and election sure. If we do these things we shall 
never be moved, for so an entrance shall be abundantly 
administered to us into the everlasting kingdom of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 



NOTE. 



The following brief obituary notice, as a further memorial of the 
deceased, will, it is hoped, be acceptable to her friends and the friends 
of her family. 

Mrs. Esther Lois Caswell was the fourth daughter and youngest 
child of the late Edward K. Thompson, Esq. and Sarah Kuhn his 
wife. She was born in Providence, September 1, 1802. 

Her childhood and youth were surrounded by the happy influences 
of an affectionate and well-ordered family. Few children have re- 
ceived a larger share of parental care and tenderness, and fewer still, 
perhaps, have returned to their benefactors an equal measure of filial 
affection and reverence. 

She early gave promise of those excellencies of character which so 
much endeared her to her friends in after life. She is remembered 
by many as the amiable school girl whose diligence and propriety of 
behaviour secured the esteem of her instructors, and whose kind and 
courteous manners rendered her a favorite with her companions. Her 
disposition was frank, cheerful, generous and confiding. She prac- 
tised no insincerity herself and suspected none in others. She ac- 
quired in youth a fondness for reading and was early conversant with 
some of the best productions of English Literature. Her predilec- 
tions were for Poetry. The writings of Cowper, Rogers, Campbell, 
Montgomery, Mrs. Hemans, and Scott, to say nothing of others, were 
to her sources of inexhaustible pleasure. And so retentive was her 
memory for Poetry that many a beautiful passage from her favorite 
authors learned in youth, was by a little effort recalled and repeated 
after the lapse of many years. 

But the bright scenes of her early life were not unvisited by sor- 
row. At the age of twelve years she lost an only brother,* — a most 
promising youth of seventeen, — by drowning ; a few years later a 
much beloved sisterf was removed by the hand of death ; later still 
her father,^ ^° whom she was attached by every sentiment of filial af- 
fection, was taken from her in the short space of a few hours, by dis- 
ease of the heart. 

These sad events were long the subjects of daily and mournful 
reminiscence in the family. The second particularly, had a most salu- 

*Edward K. Thompson, Jr. died Aug. 13th, 1814. fMrs. Elizabeth K. Nightingale, wife of 
Samuel Nightingale, Esq. died Sept. 10th, 1819. JDied March 8th, 1825. 



( 20 ) 

Jary religious influence upon the character of her whom we now 
deplore, in turning her away from the pursuit of light and fugi- 
tive pleasures to meditate upon the solemn realities of life, upon 
her own accountability to God, and upon the way of salvation through 
the mediation of Christ. The impressions of an early religious edu- 
cation were rendered deep and effectual by the corrective discipline 
of affliction. Soon after the death of her sister she became a conscien- 
tious and prayerful communicant in the Episcopal Church. The 
teachings of the Holy scriptures, the duties and offices of religion, she 
regarded with peculiar sacredness. As a teacher in the Sabbath 
School, then just beginning to attract the attention of the Christian 
public, she found an employment congenial at once to her own desire 
of moral improvement and her benevolent interest in the culture of 
others. Years of social and domestic happiness passed, one after an- 
other, marked by no incidents of special moment till at length new 
duties claimed her care. 

She was married on the 17th of May, 1830. The new relations of 
wife and mother she adorned with every virtue and every grace which 
frail humanity can boast. Of her little family circle she was the cen- 
tre and ornament, alike loving and loved of all. Cheerful and happy 
herself she possessed more than most others the precious gift of diffu- 
sing happiness about her. In her friendships she was warm and faith- 
ful. Enmities she had not. Her keen sensibilities were quickly 
wounded by rudeness or neglect, but the tablet of her generous heart 
contained no record of resentment. If she was ever ambitious it was 
in the reciprocities of kindness. It would have done violence to her 
nature to receive and not give. 

In the management and culture of her children one of the chief 
sources of her influence was the art of making their home happy. 
For this purpose she was almost always with them. She sought out 
for their vacant hours the most inviting games, sports and recreations, 
combining innocence and pleasure, and embarked in them with an 
earnestness which might seem to suppose that they were intended 
for her own special amusement. In respect to the moral and relig- 
ious education of her children she had great faith in the Scripture pre- 
cept, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he 
will not depart from it." Accordingly she labored with ceaseless care 
to imbue the minds of her own with the fear and the love of God ; to 
lead them with maternal love beside the still waters of Christian 
faith and hope and charity. But more instructive than all precepts 
to them, was her own beautiful example. They listened to her 
reading of the Scriptures, to her familiar explanations of them, and 
joined in the touching devotions of her private chamber, and could 
not but feel that happiness and religion were one and inseparable. 



( 21 ) 

It has been remarked that Mrs. Caswell at the age of about eigh- 
teen years became a communicant in the Episcopal church. Acci- 
dental circumstances alone prevented her from receiving Confirmation. 
Her views of the ordinances, however, as she was then led to examine 
the subject, were not entirely in harmony with the practise of the 
church in which she was educated. She doubted the propriety of 
Infant Baptism, because it did not seem to her to be authorized by 
any command or example of the New Testament. To the mere mode 
of Baptism she attached little comparative importance, but gave the 
preference to immersion as being in her judgment most consonant 
to the scriptures. With her, however, religion was a personal thing 
and realized its true development in bringing all the powers of the 
mind into subjection to the will of Christ. With her, above all tem- 
ples and all ordinances was the soul penetrated with a sense of its 
own guilt and of the infinite mercy revealed in Christ, and humbly 
seeking by the aid of divine grace to do the will of Grod. 

But whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. The hand of affliction, 
which recalled her youthful steps from the paths of sin, was still over 
her in more mature life. The loss of a beloved child* in the autumn 
of 1837, seemed to have its perfect work in the sanctification of her 
own heart. It was then in the hour of most touching bereavement 
that she came to know, to use her own words, as she had never known 
before, what was meant by, " the peace of Glod which passeth under- 
standing." Feeling it to be a duty and a privilege to confess Christ 
before men, and holding the sentiments before stated respecting the 
ordinance of Christian Baptism, she deemed it most suitable to con- 
nect herself with the church of which her husband had long been a 
member and in whose worship she had devoutly participated for sev- 
eral years. She was accordingly baptized July 1st, 1838, and became 
a member of the First Baptist Church in Providence, then under the 
pastoral care of the Rev. William Hague. In taking this step she 
was anxious to express no disrespect for the church in which she was 
early nurtured. It is but justice to her memory to say, that to the 
end of her life she retained a predilection for much of its service, a 
hearty approval of its Evangelical doctrines, and a warm personal at- 
tachment to many of its members. Her change of membership, and 
her difference of views respecting one of the ordinances, was attended 
by no alienation of Christian regards and no separation of Christian 
friendships. Sectarian rivalries and bitter controversies professedly 
for the good of religion she held in very low esteem. They were repug- 
nant to her tastes and feelings, and in her judgment alike foreign to the 
spirit of the Grospel and often subversive of its great end. It is hardly 
necessary to say that in her view, any form or profession of religion 

* Alexis Caswell died Oct. loth, 1837, aged 2 years and 2 mouths. 



( 22 ) 

which did not end in personal piety, in a sense of nnworthiness and 
deep humility before God and in looking to the atoning sacrifice of 
Christ as the sinner's only refuge, came far short of meeting the real 
wants of a sinful human being. 

For the poor and the suffering the subject of this notice had the 
warmest and most active sympathy. Her heart and her hands so far 
as her ability permitted, were always open for their relief. With her 
it was a practical and every day maxim, which Christian benevolence 
will know how to interpret, " we shall never be the poorer for helping 
the needy." The suffering and necessitous who came under her 
own notice were the first to claim her charity. Others more remote 
however, were not overlooked. The hopes and promises of the Gos- 
pel were so precious to her own soul that she earnestly coveted for all 
others a participation in the same blessings. The great enterprise of 
Christian Missions enlisted her prayers and her support. To be ab" 
sent from the monthly concert of prayer for the spread of the Gospel 
she always felt to be a personal privation. She loved to hear of the 
triumphs of the Cross; she loved to contemplate the prophetic period 
when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our 
Lord and of his Christ. 

It may not be improper to add, as pertaining to the true delineation 
of her character, that she highly appreciated in others, and possessed 
in a good degree herself, what is properly termed a cultivated taste. 
This was indicated in her conversation, in her choice of books, and in 
her preferences of character. The beauties of Art and of Nature were 
to her sources of real and sometimes of almost unbounded pleasure. 
Pictures, plants, flowers, fields, woods and mountains, she never ceased 
to admire. An excursion in the country when the foliage of Au- 
tumn had assumed its varied and glorious hues was more instructive 
to her moral sentiments, more inspiring to her devotion than many a 
formal lecture on Christian duties. 

It is not intended in any thing here said to leave the impression that 
the character of the deceased was faultless. Such a suggestion would 
have been offensive to her own quick sense of truth and propriety. 
To err is human. No one was more conscious of imperfections than 
herself. But in the view of those who knew her best, her faults were 
so inconsiderable, were so encompassed and overshadowed by qualities 
of the most sterling worth, that they made but a transient appear- 
ance ; and in the retrospect seem scarce to deserve a passing thought, 
much less a record. 

Of the closing scenes of her earthly existence little need be said- 
After a brief illness of five days she departed this life a little before 
the rising of sun on the 25th of June, 1850, in the forty-eighth year 
of her age Her disease in the opinion of her physicians was Erysipe- 



( 23 ) 

las of the lungs. It was attended with comparatively little pain. Her 
powers of perception and reason were unclouded to the end ; and when 
the final moment came, she expired in a manner so gentle, and re- 
tained an expression of countenance so placid and benignant, that 
death seemed but the friendly messenger of rest to her weary limbs, 
and of peace to her emancipated spirit. 

Mrs. Caswell was the mother of six children, three only of whom 
survive to mourn her loss and cherish the memory of her virtues ; the 
mortal remains of three repose by the side of her own in the North 
Buryial Ground of this city, there to remain till the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible and death shall be swallowed up in victory. 

A. C. 

August 15, 1850. 



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